"If he don't, he oughter," said Otis, whose English was apt to fray, as it were, when he grew familiar or confidential. "The person that told him would be doin' him a kindness. Look here! I ought to know something about that gal, since I was engaged to marry her, with her mother's consent."
"To marry her! She was only sixteen!" cried Theo.
"We were short of gals in Slabbert's Poort," said Amurrica, with that irresistible dry grin which always fascinated people. "But the day her father was buried, Mestaer, the feller she was carryin' on with, picked a quarrel with me, fought me, pounded me into a jelly, and carried off my gal that night."
Madeline grew very red. The seriousness of this accusation was more than she had contemplated. After all, Melicent was a Cooper!
"You must mean he tried to carry her off," she said faintly.
Major Otis took out the cigar he was smoking—one of General Ayres' best—and touched her sleeve lightly with one finger.
"Cousin of yours?" He looked round at Sybil with raised eyebrows. "Better not. This pretty young English lady don't know the sorter thing her cousin came out of."
"Having gone so far, you ought to speak out, I think," said Madeline.
He shook his head, and looked sympathetic.
"This young lady is going to be married, I hear—to make what's called a good match?"